Feniosky Peña-Mora learned English at Columbia University in New York City two decades ago as a newly arrived immigrant with an engineering degree from the Dominican Republic, where he grew up. Now, the 43-year-old is returning to the upper Manhattan campus, close to the heart of the city's Dominican community, taking over in July as dean of that Ivy League institution's School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Peña-Mora replaces interim dean Gerald Navratil and will assume a program with 164 faculty, close to 2,870 undergraduate and grad students and a research budget that totalled $87.2 million as of 2006-07, according to the school's website, www.engineering.columbia.edu. Undergraduate tuition and fees are $37,470 a year (not including room and board and other fees).